The World Health Organization Recognizes an Epidemic of Violations of Rights Mental Patients

The care available from mental health facilities around the world including the USA is not only of poor quality but in many instances hinders recovery. There are also significant problems here in the USA. Because the care of mental patients occurs behind closed door and there is secrecy to the legal proceeding concerning involuntary treatment and forced commitment - this is a silent victim. Training of staff is minimal and outdated and the level of knowledge and understanding about the human rights of persons with mental disabilities is very poor. Thus staff often respond with forced drugging and restraints for staff convenience with little regard to the human rights of the patient. It is common for people to be locked away in small, prison‐like cells with no human contact, or to be chained to their beds, unable to move. Inhuman and degrading treatment practices are common, and people in facilities are often stripped of their dignity and treated with contempt. Violations are not restricted to inpatient and residential facilities. Many people seeking care from outpatient and community care services are disempowered and also experience extensive restrictions in their basic human rights.Violations often occur behind closed doors and go unreported ‐ unless people know that they are going on, action cannot be taken to stop them.

The Equal Protection
Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment requires that the government treat all
similarly situated people alike. Violations of the Equal Protection Clause are actionable under
42 U.S.C. § 1983.

"When we lose the right to be different, we lose the
privilege to be free."

-- Justice Charles Evans Hughes

(1862-1948) Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court

Discrimination Against Persons with a Mental Health Disability

Discrimination and the absence of legal protections against improper and abusive treatment cause much of the hardship faced by people with mental health disabilities. Improper discrimination may also take place against people with no disability at all – if they are improperly viewed as having a mental disorder, or if they once experienced a mental disorder earlier in life. People with mental disabilities are subject to de jure discrimination – the arbitrary denial of rights that are afforded to all other citizens. People with mental disabilities are often deprived of liberty for prolonged periods of time without legal process; subjected to neglect in harsh institutional environments and deprived of basic health care.

Persons who have been diagnosed with a mental illness are often deprived of the right to give or withhold informed consent, whereas individuals with other diagnoses are accorded the right to give or withhold informed consent for treatment. For example, a diabetic who refuses an amputation is provided a hearing before such a procedure can occur and a person with a communicable disease gets a hearing before she can be quarantined. The fact that the State has singled out people with mental illness as unworthy of due process constitutes discrimination based on disability.

Mental Health Rights

Undeniable rights

The right to
treatment services which promote the potential of the person to function
independently. Treatment should be provided in ways that are least
restrictive of the personal liberty of the individual.

The right to
dignity, privacy, and humane care.

The right to be
free from harm, including unnecessary or excessive physical restraint,
isolation, medication, abuse, or neglect. Medication may not be used as
punishment, for the convenience of staff, as a substitute for, or in
quantities that interfere with the treatment program.

The right to
prompt medical care and treatment.

The right to
religious freedom and practice.

The right to
participate in appropriate programs of publicly supported education.

The right to
social interaction.

The right to
physical exercise and recreational opportunities.

The right to be
free from hazardous procedures.

Additional rights

Additionally,
every mental health client has the right to see and receive the services of a
Patients' Rights Advocate. All patients also have the following treatment
rights:

The right to
give or withhold informed consent to medical and psychiatric treatment,
including the right to refuse medications except in emergency situations
where danger to life is present; or by court order where the patient is
found to lack the capacity to give or refuse informed consent via either a
Capacity Hearing and also known as a Riese hearing or via conservatorship.

The right to
refuse psychosurgery.

The right to
refuse electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) unless court ordered.

The right to
confidentiality.

The right to
inspect and copy the medical record, unless specific criteria are met.

The right to
have family/friends notified of certain treatment information with
patient's permission.

The
right to an aftercare plan.

Deniable rights with good cause

Psychiatric
facilities must also uphold the following specific rights, which can be denied
only when "good cause" exists.

The right to
wear one's own clothing.

The right to
keep and use one's own personal possessions, including toilet articles, in
a place accessible to the patient.

The right to
keep and spend a reasonable sum of one's money for small purchases.

The right to
have access to individual storage space for one's own use.

The right to see
visitors each day.

The right to
have reasonable access to phones both to make and receive confidential
calls.

The right to
have access to letter-writing materials, including stamps.

The right to
mail and receive unopened letters and correspondence.

With good cause

Denying
a patient's rights requires good cause. Good cause is defined as the belief of
the professional in charge of care for the client that the specific right would
cause

a danger to self
or others;

a serious
infringement on the rights of others; or

serious damage
to the facility;

and
that there is no less restrictive measure that would protect against those
occurrences.

Patient
rights cannot be denied as a condition of admission, nor as part of a treatment
plan (a doctor may not designate patient rights a 'privilege' or 'punishment').
Any time a right is denied under good cause, it must be documented in the
patient's medical record and explained to the patient. The denial must be
reviewed regularly and removed once good cause no longer exists.

When
a right is denied, the reason given for denying the right must have some clear
relationship to the right denied. For example, a patient may be denied the
right to keep his cigarettes (the right to keep and use personal possessions)
because he is burning himself and lighting fires, and lesser restrictive
alternatives (supervision during designated smoking times) have failed. This
rule prevents facilities from denying rights as a form of punishment; for
example, if a patient misbehaves by throwing food at another person, then the
facility cannot take away personal possessions or deny visitors for the day.

Without good cause

If
a right was denied without good cause, a patient can instruct his or her
appointed public defender to file an Ex Parte application with the court to
restore the right. After filing the application, a hearing is set and an
opportunity to be heard by the judge concerning the merits of the case is
reviewed; the judge determines if the right will be restored or remain listed
as a "good cause" denial. An Ex Parte can bring relief in a matter
when a person is deprived of any interest in liberty or property without due
process of law.

If
someone is placed on a 72-hour hold as a danger to themselves or others and
admitted to a facility for treatment, they are prohibited from purchasing or
possessing firearms for five years from the date of admission to the facility.

If
someone has been placed on a 14-day hold, they are prohibited from purchasing
or possessing firearms for five years under state law and for life under
federal law.

Testimony At Toronto City Hall On You Tube. This was the 10th annual Conference on Human Rights and Psychiatric Oppression Toronto, Canada on 14 to 18 May 1982 . Testimony
is about psychiatric drugs, electric shock treatment and lobotomy. In
the video you see Judy Chamberlin, Leonard Frank and Others. The
testimony is that of Donald Johnson.

"What finally emerges from
the 'clear and present danger' cases is a working principle that the
substantive evil must be extremely serious and the degree of
imminence extremely high before utterances can be punished... It must be
taken as a command of the broadest scope that explicit language, read in
the context of a liberty-loving society, will allow."

Justice Hugo L. Black

(1886-1971) US Supreme Court
Justice

Source: Bridges v. California

The First Amendment’s protection of free speech also
protects freedom of thought. By forcing
individuals to take mind-altering drugs against their will, the medical staff forcibly
changes the ability of such individuals to formulate particular thoughts. The
involuntary administration of psychotropic drugs affects patients’ mental
processes, interfering with their freedom of thought.

“… it is the inherent nature of all human beings to yearn for
freedom, equality and dignity, and they have an equal right to achieve that.”

His Holiness The Dalai Lama, New
York, April 1994

Mental Illness and Decision Making Capacity

The MacArthur Treatment Competence Study, published in 1995, confirms that mental illness cannot be equated with incompetence, that many individuals with mental illness retain full decision-making capacity, and that even when such illness impairs capacity in one area, it may leave capacity unimpaired in others. The study measured four criteria of decision-making capacity — communicating a choice, understanding relevant information, appreciating a situation and its consequences, and reasoning about treatment options — and concluded that nearly one half of the schizophrenic subjects and 76% of the depressed subjects performed in the “adequate” range across all decision-making measures, and a significant portion performed at or above the mean for persons without mental illness.

Tina Minkowitz is one of the Chairpersons of the World Network of Users and Survivors of Psychiatry and a Lawyer.

Tina
was extensively involved with the drafting and negotiation of the UN
Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and was one of 12
NGO members on an official working group that produced the first draft text.

This interview is from the DVD "Visions" - for further info - www.qldalliance.org.au

For he has not despised or disdained the suffering of the afflicted one; he has not hidden his face from him but has listened to his cry for help.

Psalm 22:24

International Enforcement of Mental Health Human Rights

The Vienna Declaration reaffirms, people with mental
disabilities are protected by the same human rights law that protects all other
individuals – including the provisions of binding human rights conventions.
International human rights law creates a number of broad protections that
provide important rights to people with mental disabilities.

These provisions
of human rights conventions affirm the rights of personswith disabilities the
following rights:

(1) the right to the highest attainable standard of physical
and mental health;

(2) protections against discrimination

(3) protections
against torture, inhuman, or degrading treatment;

(4) protections against
arbitrary detention.

The major UN conventions, including the ICCPR and the
ICESCR, create treaty-based supervisory bodies. Governments that ratify
conventions agree to report regularly on the steps that they have taken to
implement the convention – through changes in legislation, policy, or practice.
Non-governmental organizations can also
submit information for review by oversight bodies. Oversight bodies review both
the official and non-governmental reports and publish their findings, which may
include a determination that governments have not met their international
obligations under the convention. The international oversight and reporting
process thus provides an opportunity to educate the public about a specialized
area of rights. This process can also be a powerful way to pressure governments
to realize convention-based rights.

The UN Human Rights Committee was established to monitor the
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (the ICCPR). Although it has yet to issue a general
comment specifically on the rights of people with mental disabilities. It has issued
General Comment 18 that defines the protection against discrimination against people with
disabilities under article 26.52 In its comments on Article 7, it specifies that the protection
against “torture...cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment” applies to “medical institutions,
whether public or private.” In order to demonstrate compliance with Article 7, all governments that
have ratified the ICCPR: should further address the conditions and procedures for
providing medical and particularly psychiatric care. Information should be provided on detention in
psychiatric hospitals, on measures taken to prevent abuses in this
field, on appeals available to persons interned in a psychiatric institution and on any
complaints registered during the reporting period.

"What finally emerges from
the 'clear and present danger' cases is a working principle that the
substantive evil must be extremely serious and the degree of imminence
extremely high before utterances can be punished... It must be taken as a
command of the broadest scope that explicit language, read in the context of a
liberty-loving society, will allow."

Justice Hugo L. Black

(1886-1971) US Supreme Court Justice

Source: Bridges v. California

"The greatest right of a civilized person is to be left
alone, unless he does harm to others or is threatening to do harm to himself."

-- Justice Arthur Joseph Goldberg

"Antipsychotic drugs
have both an inherent potential for abuse and an actual history of
indiscriminate use by the psychiatric
profession. In this respect they are similar to psychosurgery and electroshock therapy, highly
invasive treatments which psychiatrists embraced enthusiastically and used indiscriminately —
until their tragic effects became publicized and their use was curtailed by legislative,
judicial, and scientific pressure. Because many psychiatrists will not heed the
warnings in the scientific
literature as to the dangers and misuse of neuroleptic drugs, independent and
unbiased decision-makers
should decide whether orders for forced medication are justified."

Supreme Court Justice, John Roberts in the Amicus Curiae Brief
of the American Psychological Association in Support of Respondent at 13-14, Washington
v. Harper, 494 U.S. 210 (1990) (No. 88-599).

"Never impose on others what you would not choose for yourself." Confucius

Did You Know?

"Over ninety percent of persons with mental illness have no history of violence. "

The Real Truth about Outcomes on Psychiatric Medications

a) They increase the likelihood that a person will become chronically ill.

b) They cause a host of debilitating side effects.

c) They lead to early death.

Increased Risk of Suicide in Drug Treated Patients

In the largest study ever done to address suicide in
schizophrenia patients it was found:

The widely cited lifetime rate of 10% for suicide in
patients with schizophrenia is incorrect for both the pre- and post-community
care eras.

The best estimate for the life time rate of suicide in
patients with schizophrenia in the pre-community care era is of the order of 1%
or less.

Although de-institutionalism is probably the single most
important factor in determining suicide rates in patients with schizophrenia,
pharmacotherapy appears to contribute to this risk, and is the element of current care that is undermost clinical
control.

Increased Risk of Death in Patients taking Neuroleptic drugs

99 people diagnosed schizophrenic for 17 years were studied and it was found that the usage of even one neuroleptic drug increased the risk of dying by 3 fold (35% died). The use of 3 neurleptics increased the risk of dying in 17 years by 7 fold! (57% died)

Steve Muccio, executive director of PEOPLe, Inc., a peer-operated
program in Upstate New York, describes working without coercion to help
people with a mental illness or substance abuse disorder reclaim their
lives and their dignities. He appeared at a conference sponsored by The
Bridge in New York City, at the Columbia University School of Law, Nov.
20, 2009

Truth about Psychiatric Drugs

Warnings not clearly given to the public:

The drug industry makes it
confusing that many psychotropic drugs have different names and
different warning labels in different countries and thus what is known
about dangerous side effects in one country may not be common knowledge
for patients or even prescribing doctors in another country. There is
suppression of the research findings of negative outcomes and also
suppression of reports of clinical adverse events. There is little
adherence to the guidance of the Food and Drug Administration guidelines
in these matters, with hospitals and mental health professionals
routinely ignoring FDA warning labels and withholding the truth from
patients and their families. Even a cursory view of the serious effects of these drugs would make any
person be concerned.

The Falicy of Chemical Imbalance

Psychiatry doctors frequently mislead mental health
patients. So a few basic facts regarding
how these anti-psychotic drugs work is necessary. People with schizophrenia have no known
“chemical imbalance” in the brain, antipsychotic drugs cannot be said to work
by “balancing” brain chemistry. These drugs are not like “insulin for diabetes” nor are they like vitamins
for the brain. Neither do these drugs correct
any chemical imbalance and they do not serve as a corrective to a known
biological abnormality. Instead, these powerful mind altering medications
such as Thorazine or Clopazone and other standard antipsychotics (also known as
neuroleptics) work by powerfully blocking dopamine transmission in the brain. The
specific action of these drugs is to block 70% to 90% of a particular group of
dopamine receptors known as D2 receptors. This prevents normal dopamine
transmission. Please remember that low
levels of dopamine is what causes Parkinson’s disease.

Informed Consent is a Requirement not a Courtesy

Informed consent is an essential human right which was guaranteed by the
Nuremberg Code and an ethical principle approved by the World Health
Organization, the United Nations and even the US government. This is a
human right that all human beings have under both international law and
under US Constitutional law. Mental health professionals need to honor
the ethical and human rights principle of informed consent. The human
right to have informed consent is a right that even prisoners of war and
convicted felons have and yet mental health patients, who have been
charged with no crime, have been routinely denied this basic human
right. As a third party decision maker, the legal guardian stands for
the human rights of the patient when the patient is incapacitated. The
legal guardian needs to stand firm and insist that he/she be fully
informed regarding all medical treatment choices including the dangers
of all drugs and treatments given.

The right to informed consent is delineated in the federal regulation
Protection of Human Subjects, 45 CFR 46 also known as the Common Rule
under the authority granted by the U.S. Department of Health and Human
Services. The Belmont Report was written concerning the Ethical
Principles and Guidelines for the protection of human subjects of
research. Since 1945, various codes for the proper and responsible
conduct of human experimentation in medical research have been adopted
by different organizations. The best known of these codes are the
Nuremberg Code of 1947, the Helsinki Declaration of 1964 (revised in
1975), and the 1971 Guidelines (codified into Federal Regulations in
1974) issued by the U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare
Codes for the conduct of social and behavioral research have also been
adopted, the best known being that of the American Psychological
Association, published in 1973.

Respect for persons requires that patients, to the degree that they are
capable, be given the opportunity to choose what shall or shall not
happen to them. Information about risks should never be withheld for the
purpose of eliciting the cooperation of a patient and truthful answers
should always be given to direct questions about the treatment and
research. But a lack of informed consent is exactly what has happened
to many mental health patients. The medical information about these
drugs is often conveyed to the legal guardian in a technical,
disorganized and rapid fashion and thus there is often not sufficient
time to consider the information or to question it. Often there is no
substantive discussion with hospital or clinic staffs in which the views
of the patient and the legal guardian were honored and listened to;
instead patients are often ignored as if they did not have any rights to
express their dislike for medications or treatment options. There is
often no voluntary agreement to participate in research thus there was
no valid consent. Informed consent requires conditions free of coercion
and undue influence and it is clear that while incarcerated in a locked
psychiatric hospital ward there is the use of coercion. There can also
be the use of undue influence by the court appointed attorney through
offers of inappropriate or improper reward in order to obtain compliance
vulnerable patients. The doctor in his/her position of authority who
can exert a commanding influence and who can threaten sanctions can
easily force patients to take drugs against their consent.

Involuntary Drugging Violates Due Process Rights

Due process rights are not be adequately protected and violations of contemporary standards of due process occur because:

(a) the
forcible medication of patients who are competent to make medical decisions is allowed;

(b) the
forcible medication of patients occurs without a finding that the patients would pose a danger
to themselves or others without medication;

(c) there is no legal
representation provided to the patient;

(d) there is no truly
independent psychiatric examination of patients who refuse medication;

(e) there is no
notice provided to the patient;

(f) there is no right
to confrontation;

(g) there is no
decision by an impartial decision-maker who is independent of the hospital and
Defendants’ supervision;

(h) there is no limit
to the length of time a patient can be forcibly medicated;

(i) there is no
requirement limiting the type or dosage of medication with which a patient can be
forcibly drugged;

(j) there is no
meaningful review of involuntary medication decisions; and

Antipsychotics Increase Chonicity of Psychosis

There have been several research
studies that actually prove that these medications do not provide long term
positive effects even though they may initially decrease or curb psychosis over
the short term. But positive effects did
not lapse and a year later, patient on these antipsychotics actually relapsed
and made patients more psychotic over the long term. ( Schooler, N, et al.
“One year after discharge: community adjustment of schizophrenic patients.” American
Journal of Psychiatry 123 (1967):986-95.)
The NIMH conducted three different studies that compared antipsychotic
treatment with “environmental” care that minimized use of the drugs. In each
instance, patients treated without drugs did better over the long term than
those treated in a conventional manner. Rappaport,
M, et al. (1978), Carpenter, W., et al. (1977) and Bola J, et al (2003). In addition in the Guy Chouinard and Barry
Jones’ research study (1978 and 1980) they
tested the theory that the reason for this relapse when patients are put on year
long antipsychotics, was that the brain responds to neuroleptics and their
blocking of dopamine receptors as though they are a pathological insult. To
compensate, dopaminergic brain cells increase the density of their D2 receptors
by 40% or more. As a result now the brain
is “supersensitive” to dopamine, and as a result, the person has become
more biologically vulnerable to psychosis than he or she would be naturally. So neuroleptics can produce a dopamine
supersensitivity that leads to both dyskinetic and psychotic symptoms. Thus the outcome of treatment with an
antipsychotic drug would increase the possibility of dopamine supersentivity
and thus predispose the patient to psychosis more than just the normal course
of the illness.

50% of Schizophrenics do fairly well without drugs

“Every chronic schizophrenic outpatient
maintained on an antipsychotic medication should have the benefit of an
adequate trial without drugs.”

"Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in getting up every time we do."

Confucius

Effects of Psychiatric Drugs

These psychiatric drugs are not of small risk but instead cause massive
changes in the way the brain functions. Long term studies have
indicated that there are severe debilitating and sometimes fatal effects
of these drugs. Possible negative effects were minimized or not even
discussed at all. There are risks of long term psychological harm,
physical harm, social harm and economic harm. Many of these drugs cause symptoms that can themselves be construed as
mental illness.The probability of
developing Parkinsons’ like symptoms is also great.

NIDS - Neuroleptic Induced Deficit Syndrome:

Neuroleptic Induced Deficit Syndrome (NIDS) can be caused by these
medications which change in emotional awareness, sense of aliveness, and
in the speed, and clarity of thought. The treatment effects felt by
many people who have taken these medications are described as feeling
like a zombie. Neuroleptic effect is present when the following
features are observed:

As the dose of the medication increases, and more time elapses, it
appears that the effects change – from sedative effects, into
anti-psychotic effects, and possibly into other less desirable side
effects; akathisia (restless leg syndrome), emotional parkinsonism
(emotional blunting) and on into some other unwanted side effects. It
is not uncommon when the first symptoms appear like apathy, emotional
indifference, motor slowing or slow mentation that these were attributed
to the underlying condition of the patient (the patient’s disease) when
really they are the effects of the medication itself. A patient on
these medications can initially demonstrate an improvement in symptoms
only to later over time have that initial improvement go away or to only
reach a certain point and then plateau or level off. There is also one
more important one effect: neuroleptic dysphoria – which is like
depression. When this happens when patients are often given even higher
dosages of the drugs, leading to even more severe effects.

Many of the symptoms that are used to justify hospital treatment may
actually be caused by the psychiatric medications given. So
continuation of these medications only creates a self-filling prophecy
that furthers the financial goals of the hospital institution and may
cause further permanent brain damage.

Risk of Parkinson's symptoms

Many patients who
take psychiatric drugs also develop Parkinsonian side effects - about 40-50% (or more)
experience Parkinsonian symptoms. Julia
Child, a very famous cook over in the US and the actor Michael J Fox are both
famous victims of severe Parkinson’s disease. In Parkinson’s disease people lose these
dopamine cells in the substantia nigra area of the brain. With antipsychotic
medication, we’re not killing off those cells but we are affecting how they
function and so Parkinson’s symptoms do occur in a fairly high rate of
patients.

"Experience should teach us to be most on our guard to
protect liberty when the Government's purposes are beneficent. Men born to freedom are naturally alert to repel
invasion of their liberty by evil-minded rulers. The greatest dangers to liberty lurk
in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well-meaning but without understanding."

Justice Louis D. Brandeis

US Supreme Court Justice 1928

Source: Dissenting, Olmstead v. United States, 277 US 479
(1928)

Therapeutic Drug Dependence - Neuroleptic Withdrawal Syndrome

Therapeutic drug dependence occurs with psychiatric drugs. Although
these drugs produce no tolerance and no euphoria, they produce enduring
post-discontinuation changes that are as extensive and long lasting as
the changes underpinning current disease models of addiction. Patients
also get withdrawal or discontinuation syndromes when they stop taking
their medication or when their medication is lowered in dose. When
anti-depressant or anti-psychotic medications have been in the brain for
a while and then the dose is suddenly lowered, or if the medication is
taken away too quickly there is a reaction to that change called
Neuroleptic Discontinuation Syndrome. So when a patient runs out of
medication or is suddenly put on a lower dosage they can demonstrate
exacerbations of psychosis, become delusional or even hallucinate.
Seizures can also occur from rapid withdrawal from these psychiatric
medications.

The danger of withdrawal from antidepressants and antipsychotics is well documented. The brain compensates for the blockage of the serotonin and dopamine receptors by growing additional receptors for these neurotransmitters. When the medications are discontinued or suddenly decreased, these additional receptors contribute to 'overload' of serotonin and dopamine flooding the receptor. This is known as distcontinuation syndrome.

What usually happens to the patient in withdrawal is that
they end up back in the hospital again. These crisis admissions lead to
being labeled with a new disease diagnosis – schizophrenia, or
delusional or manic depressive and then placed on even greater dosages
of even more dangerous drugs. The doctors in these instances are quick
to blame the patient, for a relapse rather than considering when the
patient last took his medication. Discontinuation syndrome can
sometimes last for weeks or months - some people have said they can last
as long as six months.

Risks of Psychiatric Medications

Adverse Effects of Atypical Anti-psychotics:

The so-called “atypical” antipsychotics are neither “atypical” nor
“antipsychotic.” Not infrequently, these chemicals induce or enhance
bizarre statements (disorganized speech or delusions), social withdrawal
(depression), and sedation (encephalopathy), regardless of dose. The
processes through which these medications exert destabilizing effects
include receptor blockade (D2, ACH, histamine), electrophysiological
(depolarization) blockade; direct toxicity (cell death); and induction
of other disease processes (pneumonia, diabetes, hypothyroidism, PE).
Unfortunately many prescribing clinicians are largely unaware of these
problems and thus do not inform their patients.

Numerous psychiatric medications are dangerous and even life threatening
adverse effects including: weight gain and diabetes, tardive
dyskinesia (movement disorder), tremor, akathisia (restless leg
syndrome), dyskinesia (uncontrollable movements, tics, tremors),
dystonia, as well as the side effects of nausea, dizziness (low blood
pressure), and insomnia. Dystonia is a neurological movement disorder,
in which sustained muscle contractions cause twisting and repetitive
movements or abnormal postures. It is painful to even watch a video of
someone with dyskinesia or dystonia. The doctors when prescribing these
medications tell patients and their families just to disregard these
potentially life threatening and life altering side effects.

Many of these drugs cause symptoms that can themselves be construed as
mental illness. One drug Abilify or Aripiprazole, is known to cause
neurological side effects, gastrointestinal signs, movement disorders,
disturbances in thinking, anxiety disorders, sleep disorders and even
suicidal behavior. These are the actually side effects of the drug –
yet when these symptoms occur they are attributed often to what they
claim is the medical diagnosis. Doctors reported to the FDA that their
patients had hallucinations, psychosis, heart rate, diabetes, cardiac
problems, liver dysfunction, coma, and blood coagulation problems while
on Abilify. Even a very cursory review of the FDA warnings and listing
of adverse side effects would cause any responsible legal guardian to
reconsider the use of these drugs on a loved one.

Psychiatric Drugs cause Parkinson's Effects:

Many patients who take these drugs also develop Parkinsonian side
effects about 40-50% (or more) experience Parkinsonian symptoms. Julia
Child, a very famous cook over in the US and the actor Michael J Fox are
both famous victims of severe Parkinson’s disease. In Parkinson’s
disease people lose these dopamine cells in the substantia nigra area of
the brain. With antipsychotic medication, there is not actually death
of brain cells but the drug does affect how the brain cells function. So
Parkinson’s symptoms do occur in a fairly high rate of patients.

Fatal Blood Problems:

The antipsychotic Clozapine can cause fatal blood problems as well
as other side effects of serious concern. Clozaril (clozapine) is a
drug which was known to be associated with fatal cases of aplastic
anemia which causes low white blood cell counts and predisposes patients
to infections. Clozapine has also been linked to high blood sugar and
diabetes. Doctors are supposed to watch for unexplained fever, fatigue
and low energy levels in patients taking Clozaril. Clozaril has been
strongly associated with possible fatal heart problems. [Presto v.
Sandoz, 226 Ga. App. 547 (1997)].

Saphris or asenapine by Merck:

A new drug recently put on the market is Saphris or asenapine by Merck.
Saphris like other atypical antipsychotic drugs is known to increase
mortality. This drug causes very serious side effects including the
permanent and totally disabling disorder called Neuroleptic Malignant
Syndrome, and also Tardive Dyskinesia, Hyperglycemia and Diabetes
Mellitus, Weight Gain, Hypersensitivity Reactions, Orthostatic
Hypotension and Syncope (fainting), Leukopenia, Neutropenia, and
Agranulocytosis (white blood cell problems), QT Prolongation: (heart
rhythm problems), Seizures: Potential for Cognitive and Motor
Impairment and Suicide (a mother’s worst nightmare). Adverse reactions
to the drug Saphris include causing akathisia (restless leg syndrome,
unpleasant sensations of inner restlessness that manifests itself with
an inability to sit still or remain motionless) oral hypoesthesia (loss
of sensation in the mouth causes difficulty in eating and talking),
somnolence (sleepiness) and dizziness.

Risks of Using Combinations of Drugs

Mental health professionals have an ethical duty to inform parents about the potential lethality of drug combinations as well as adverse effects of individual drugs. Yet some psychiatric drugs actually are combinations of drugs. As a medication for ADHD, Adderall was approved for unrestricted use for treatment of ADHD by the FDA in March 1996. Adderall is a combination of stimulants (a combination of dextroamphetamine and amphetamine). In 2005 Adderall XR was pulled off the market in Canada after regulators linked the drug to 20 sudden deaths and 12 strokes. Fourteen of the deaths and two of the 12 strokes were in children. According to Canadian researchers the adverse reactions were not associated with overdose, misuse or abuse of Adderall XR. The effects of amphetamines and methamphetamine are similar to cocaine, but their onset is slower and their duration is longer. (U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) fact sheet).

Stimulants are designed to enhance dopamine transmission. Atypical antipsychotics are intended to block it. Mental health professionals have an ethical duty to inform parents about the potential lethality of drug combinations as well as adverse effects of individual drugs such as the combination of both an antipsychotic with a stimulant. The use of stimulant plus atypical antipsychotic places the patient at risk of sudden death due to stroke or dysrhythmia (heart arrhythmia); neuroleptic malignant syndrome; tardive phenomena (irreversible movement abnormalities of face, tongue, neck, limbs, trunk); and diabetes. In one sense, the pharmacodynamic effects of stimulants plus antipsychotics would be expected to oppose each other. In another sense, the brain’s adaptations to each class of medication might be synergistic. This enhances the risk of movement abnormalities, dysphoria (an emotional condition in which a person experiences intense feelings of depression and discontent) , and psychosis. There are neurotoxiceffects of use of stimulants and antipsychotics together; the dangers include the inhibition of neurogenesis and the induction of neurodegenerative changes. In other words, they prevent the healing process and can cause permanent brain damage and dysfunction.

Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be men of courage; be strong.

1 Corinthians 16:13

"Don't let life discourage you, everyone who got where he is had to begin where he was." --Richard L. Evans

Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage.--Anais Nin

"We must believe in ourselves or no one else will believe in us; we must match our aspirations with the competence, courage and determination to succeed."--Rosalyn SussmanYalow

Any intelligent fool can make things bigger and more complex... It takes a touch of genius --- and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction. --Albert Einstein

"Courage doesn't always roar. Sometimes courage is the little voice at the end of the day that says I'll try again tomorrow."

~Mary Anne Radmacher

Each of us, as Medical Whistleblowers, are injured and traumatized by the retaliation we suffered. Each of us is on our own pathway to recovery. During that healing journey we will many times revert back to an earlier stage of vulnerability or lapse in our forward momentum. But when we work together as a team, we can accomplish great things and will change the system in ways, even we, can not anticipate.

“Acquire knowledge. It enables its possessor to distinguish right from wrong; it lights the way to heaven; it is our friend in the dessert, our society in solitude, our companion when friendless; it guides us to happiness; it sustains us in misery; it is an ornament among friends, and an armor against enemies.”

Muhammad (570-632)

Many a successful movement has been accomplished by ordinary people doing extraordinary even heroic accomplishments. No one who was ever perfect led a successful movement for change. These tasks were accomplished by ordinary people, not waiting for perfection or sainthood. You do not need the most perfect understanding. You do not need to have more perfect moral consistency of character. You do not need to be gifted with perfect eloquence.

“The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.”

Lao Tsu

Violence and SSRI use for PTSD and other mental conditions

No type of antidepressant is helpful in every clinical case or even
indicated. These drugs can actually make the situation worse. As a
class of drugs SSRIs can create a unique combination of side effects
that may severely impair judgment and impulse control in individual
patients. Excessive doses of antidepressants can cause brain
dysfunctions including disorientation, confusion, and cognitive
disturbances. In combat veterans suffering PTSD, impulsive behavior,
especially if coupled with impaired cognitive functioning, can be
dangerous. Antidepressants can also trigger similar, manic-like symptoms
in people whose depression is part of a manic-depressive syndrome,
which often gets overlooked when people are given SSRIs. Is public
safety enhanced when “patients” are given SSRI’s and are persons on
SSRI’s less likely to do gun violence? The pharmaceutical corporations
would lead you to believe that a person taking these drugs is less
likely to commit suicide and less likely to do gun violence to others.
But is that really true?

Recent cases of mass violence such as the Joseph Wesbecker in Virginia
that shot his co-workers, the Virginia Tech murders, the Columbine
Shootings, and the shootings at Fort Hood, all point to the fact that
anti-depressant and SSRI medication are dangerous to the public. These
medications can cause homicidal thinking which results in public
violence and also in suicides. The pharmaceutical industry wants to use
the returning veterans as a huge potential pharmaceutical drug customer
base. All veterans are trained to use weapons and often have weapons
easily at hand. With Post Traumatic Stress a major problem in the
returning troops, we have a social problem to deal with their mental
health needs. With the US government picking up the tab, the
pharmaceutical companies are lobbying heavily to increase their expected
profits from the sales of drugs for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder
(PTSD) sufferers. The huge numbers of returning veterans are a prime
target of their sales efforts. Big Pharma pours lots of money into the
political campaigns of those who support their agenda. These huge
pharmaceutical companies have persons on the President's New Freedom
Commission on Mental Health that are pushing to do wholesale marketing
of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRI's) and other mind
altering drugs to veterans with PTSD. The constantly expanding prison
population is another target for the SSRI drug marketing and especially
those prisoners facing re-entry and who will soon have Medicaid/Medicare
to pay their pharmaceutical bills.

When SSRI antidepressants such as Prozac, Paxil and Zoloft were first
introduced in the late 1980's and early 1990's there were reports of
increasing violent behavior including suicide and homicide. There were
in 2003 reports by British authorities and the U.S. Food and Drug
Administration about unpublished studies showing an increased risk of
suicide in children and teenagers taking Paxil. Prior reports of
suicidal and homicidal acts in adults taking SSRIs have been minimized
by the pharmaceutical company defenders and mainstream doctors, who
claim that suicide is common in depression anyway.

The recent violence Nov. 5, 2009 at Fort Hood in Texas in which a
military psychiatrist shot and killed 13 people and wounded 30 others
gives us good reason to reconsider these psychiatric drug treatments for
military personnel and veterans. This incident reminded me of the
Northern Illinois University mass shootings where former grad student
Stephen Kazmierczak killed 5 students and wounding dozens of others
before committing suicide himself. This gunman had been taking the drug
Paxil prior to his mass killings. The drug manufacturer had been
deliberately withholding information about violent behavior as an
adverse effect of the medication. Now the drug Paxil carries a black
box warning about homicide and suicide. On Sept 14, 2004, an FDA panel
voted 18 to 5 to require manufacturers of all antidepressants to add
black box warnings to their product labeling. A month later, the FDA
adopted the panel's recommendations.

The warning reads in part:
"Antidepressants increased the risk of suicidal thinking and behavior
(suicidality) in short-term studies in children and adolescents with
Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) and other psychiatric disorders. Anyone
considering the use of [Drug Name] or any other antidepressant in a
child or adolescent must balance this risk with the clinical need.
Patients who are started on therapy should be observed closely for
clinical worsening, suicidality, or unusual changes in behavior."

The
warning specifically links antidepressant use to suicidal behavior in
four percent of kids on these drugs compared to two percent for kids on
placebos.

Psycho-social treatment has better outcomes

A 11 month study compared typical hospital treatment with
pure psychological treatment, noting the most severe cases went to the
psychological treatment without medication. Results were no suicide
attempts, elopements or other significant acts of violence in the psycho-social
treatment group; however, typical hospital drug group with a higher staffed
ward had 3 suicides.

from drugs to psychotherapy." Psychotherapy: Theory, Research, and
Practice. 16

(2):204-214.

Culturally Appropriate Community Supports for Mental Patients

The patient’s faith belief should be honored with what would be
considered to be culturally appropriate alternatives to the medical and
biochemical approaches to treatment. There should also be an effort to
provide appropriate peer support or other alternatives to the
traditional mental health system.

Psychotherapy is preferable to psychopharmacological
treatment, and in many studies it has shown to be more effective than
drugs (especially for PTSD) without the potentially troublesome and
dangerous side effects. There are proven psychosocial techniques for
modifying inappropriate behavior or speech. Mind/body
connecting/focusing activities can be helpful. It is valuable to “make
contact” with individuals who are unresponsive to usual forms of
communication. Also, the mere act of “being with” a person who is
experiencing profound emotional distress can provide great solace. [See
Dan Dorman’s book, Dante’s Cure, for a real-life story of a woman who
made a complete recovery from psychosis, and how that journey occurred.]

People labeled with psychiatric disabilities should be able to select
from a menu of independently available services and programs, including
mental health services, housing, vocational training, and job placement,
and should be free to reject any service or program. Mental health
treatment should be about healing, not punishment. Accordingly, the use
of aversive treatments, including physical and chemical restraints,
seclusion, and similar techniques that restrict freedom of movement,
should be banned. Moreover, in part in response to the Supreme Court's
decision in Olmstead v. L C., state and federal governments should work
with people labeled with psychiatric disabilities and others receiving
publicly-funded care in institutions to expand culturally appropriate
home- and community-based supports so that people are able to leave
institutional care and, if they choose, access an effective, flexible,
consumer/survivor-driven system of supports and services in the
community.

Libby Zion Law - Serotonin Syndrome - Medical Error

1. Philibert I.; Friedmann P.; Williams W. T.; for the
members of the ACGME Work Group on Resident Duty Hours (2002). "New
Requirements for Resident Duty Hours". Journal of the American Medical
Association 288 (9): 1112–1114. doi:10.1001/jama.288.9.1112. PMID 12204081.
edit

2. Zion, Sidney (December 18, 1997). "Hospitals Flout
My Daughter's Law". New York Daily News. Retrieved 2009-02-13. "After
it became clear to everybody, including a New York County grand jury, that Libby's
death was caused by overworked and unsupervised interns and residents, the
Libby Zion law was passed: No more 36-hour shifts for interns and residents;
from now on, attending physicians would be at the ready to supervise the young,
inexperienced student-doctors."

SSRI's and Suicidality and Violence

Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons Volume 14 Number 1 Spring 2009 11
Potential conflicts of interest: The author has neither a
financial interest in any drug mentioned, nor in any alternate treatments
for treating any mentalillness.

References:

Richard DeGrandpre. The Cult of Pharmacology: How America Became the World’s Most Troubled Drug CultureDurham, N.C.: Duke UniversityPress; 2006.

"Never impose on others what you would not choose for yourself." Confucius

"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who
points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds
could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is
actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and
blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and
again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but
who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms,
the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at
the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who
at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so
that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who
neither know victory nor defeat."

Theodore
Roosevelt- Excerpt from the speech "Citizenship In A Republic",
delivered at the Sorbonne, in Paris, France on 23 April, 1910

Medical Whistleblower Commitment to Non-Violence

Medical Whistleblower has a commitment to improving the protection of all civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights as defined in, among others, the following regional and international legal instruments:

• UN legal instruments pertaining to human rights, including: the Universal Declaration of Human Rights; the international covenants on civil and political rights and on economic, social and cultural rights; the conventions providing for monitoring mechanisms (torture, racial discrimination, discrimination against women, the rights of the child, rights of migrant workers and their families); and the conventions and standards of the International Labor Organization;

• Special procedures and non-treaty mechanisms of the United Nations;

• The Declaration on Human Rights Defenders;

• The UN resolution establishing the mandate of the Special Representative of the Secretary General on human rights defenders;

• The United Nations guidelines on human rights defenders;

In addition, Medical Whistleblower upholds the principle of a code of ethical and moral conduct that all means used by Medical Whistleblower will not include violence - We exclude the use of violence to advance political aims. We work with and in collaboration with existing governmental structures and systems but put pressure on governments in a non-violent manner to achieve human rights protections and goals.

"The human voice can never reach the distance that is covered by the still small voice of conscience."

“When we call anything a person’s right, we mean that he has a
valid claim on society to protect him in the possession of it, either by the
force of law, or by that of education and opinion”

John Stuart Mill

"The adversarial system of justice is by nature unfair and unjust. It favours the strongover the weak. It accentuates social and cultural differences, favouring the rich whoare able to engage and pay for the services of one or more layers."

Justice MinisterMadame Guigou, 1999

“Everything that is done in this world is done by hope.”
―Martin Luther

Protect Medical Whistleblowers

“The most powerful individual in the state will be cautious of committing any flagrant invasion of another’s right, when he knows that the fact of his oppression must be examined and decided by twelve indifferent men.”

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“I am only one,
But still I am one.
I cannot do everything,
But still I can do something;
And because I cannot do everything,
I will not refuse to do the something
that I can do.”
― Edward Everett Hale

Film on Residential Child Abuse

Over the GW - Available on DVD

Make Torture of US Citizens on US Soil illegal

IF YOU NEED HELP

Vietnam
Veterans of America, Crisis Phone Number. Special
Notice: If you are a veteran in emotional crisis and need help RIGHT NOW, call
this toll-free number 1-800-273-8255 available 24/7, and tell them you are a
veteran. All calls are confidential. http://www.vva.org/.

Veterans’
Crisis Intervention Hotline: 1-888-899-9377.
A Crisis Intervention Hotline has been established by the VA Heartland Network
to assist veterans who may be dealing with a mental health crisis or difficult
issue in their lives. The hotline will also aid family members or friends of
veterans who need help in assisting a veteran in crisis.

Safe Harborincludes links to find medical doctors (by zip code) who can assist with helping people safely get off of psychiatric drugs and medical personnel who will treat people without the use of psychiatric drugs.